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tax offices care about games “Right now we’re at the preliminary stages of looking at the issue and what kind of public policy questions virtual economies raise — taxes, barter exchanges, property and wealth,” said Dan Miller, senior economist for the Joint Economic Committee. “You could argue that to a certain degree the law has fallen (behind) because you can have a virtual asset and virtual capital gains, but there’s no mechanism by which you’re taxed on this stuff,” he said. -- Adam Reuters, “US Congress launches probe into virtual economies” 15 October 2006

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public activities in private spaces Servers are run by corporations Servers are owned by corporations The property paradigm is very strong

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what are the rules? Governed by contract (EULA, ToS)  Blizzard may terminate this Agreement at any time for any reason or no reason. In such event, you must immediately and permanently destroy all copies of the Game in your possession and control and remove the Game Client from your hard drive. Upon termination of this Agreement for any reason, all licenses granted herein shall immediately terminate. (WoW EULA, cl 6) The virtual world is the property of the platform owner  a (mostly) benign dictatorship

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what happens if the rules change? Expect virtual environments to adopt a services based economy  power-levelling, custom designs, etc Economy based primarily on artificial scarcity  vulnerable to inflation, flooding by platform owner or participants Detinue and Conversion of virtual wealth? Suits against platform owner for unfair competition?

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2. Value generated by participants participants are responsible for much of the value of virtual environments  content  social relationships and structures What keeps subscribers is not only content, but other participants  Not recognised by platform owners – players don't feel like they have a say  Relationships are commodified and devalued by platform owners  What happens when a player is removed from all of his or her social relationships?

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5. Virtual liberties Freedom of expression? Freedom of association? As more of our interactions occur in these virtual environments, who controls our relationships? Public activities in private spaces Who has rights of exclusion?

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Are these places going to be countries or country clubs? -- Prokofy Neva, upon being banned from a 'public library' in SL

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Danger of regulating virtual environments out of existence  Let the market decide But, can we trust platform owners to rule fairly?

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“if you don't like it, leave”?  right of exit dependent on low switching costs  high switching costs important for continued subscriptions  Very difficult to leave an environment which is designed to attach you property, status, social relationships  Real Money Trades can significantly lower switching costs (for commodified indicators)  Are low switching costs necessary for a liberal environment? If so, how will platform owners enforce the rules?

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Breaking point? Individuals have little power  Will it take player unions to effect change?  Class actions unlikely EULAs and ToS may be unconscionable Property is a pressure point  Courts may be responsive to arguments framed in terms of property interests of participants Hegemony and relative autonomy  keeping participants happy and oppressed?

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Justified intervention Courts and legislatures will eventually be asked to intervene When will they be justified in doing so? We don't have universal rights of the avatar  different for all environments Do we have a baseline? Is there a way of knowing?

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The importance of governance Virtual environments should be allowed to develop  need to be able to make their own rules The more legitimate the rules, the less territorial powers should interfere Where a platform owner behaves arbitrarily, we may have a duty to protect the participants

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Define legitimacy What do we expect from virtual environments?  participants know the rules  rules are enforced transparently  decisions are not made arbitrarily  Right of appeal?  Participatory decision making? What is the baseline? Are there a set of principles we can establish?

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